China Robot Industry is Booming

By the end of 2015, China’s inventory of industrial robots had been more than 250,000 units. It is expected that CAGR of annual installation of China’s industrial robots will surpass 20%.

Overall, China’s industrial robot market in the next few years will maintain its rapid development. For investors, there are investment opportunities in industries related to the industrial robotics industry chain.

The quantity of the global industrial robot installation was more than 230,000 units in 2015. The industrial robots mainly concentrated in the automobile, electronic and electric industry, rubber, plastics, metal industry and machinery.

Robots can be divided into industrial robots, service robots and special robots by usage. Industrial robots include the robots, with mechanical arms currently, used for industrial production such as welding, spraying, palletizing, and carrying.

Industrial robot is the high-end intelligent equipment with the integrated system of interdisciplinary advanced technology such as machinery, electronics, control, computer, sensor, artificial intelligence.

Kuka, together with ABB, Yaskawa Electric Corporation and Fanuc are four giants in Industrial Robotics Industry. In recent years, they have invested to build production bases in China. ABB locates its headquarter of global robot project and one of the two production bases in Shanghai. Although some big international giants have set up production base in China, the core control and software deciding the robot’s performance still stay outside of China. Industrial robots are technology-intensive products with higher technical barriers.

The quantity of the global industrial robot installation was more than 230,000 units in 2015. The industrial robots mainly concentrated in the automobile, electronic and electric industry, rubber, plastics, metal industry and machinery.

International robot giants have vied for Chinese market in recent years, which leads to increasingly fierce domestic market competition.

Under the background of rising labor costs and increasingly fierce market competition, Chinese market’s demand for industrial robots is daily growing. From 2010 to 2015, the average new installation of industrial robots in China were more than 30,000 units.

With consumers’ level-up demand for product performance and quality, as well as rising labor price in China, China’s manufacturing industry is facing the increasing pressure on industrial transformation and upgrading. As a representative in the field of intelligent manufacturing, industrial robots are playing an increasingly important role in the process of industrial transformation and upgrading. China produced about 20,000 units of industrial robots in 2015, with more than 60% year-on-year growth, which was still unable to satisfy domestic demand. In 2014, China became the world’s largest market for industrial robots. The sales volume of industrial robots in China reached 75,000 units in 2015. By the end of 2016, the inventory of China’s industrial robots will be top of the world.

In view of the downstream application, automobile and electronics industry are the main application fields of industrial robots in China. The automobile industry which is the largest application field of industrial robots, accounting for more than 30%, is the application industry with the highest use density of robots.

With the development of Chinese factories’ automation, industrial robots also develop rapidly in other industrial sectors, such as electronics, rubber, plastics, military industry, aviation manufacturing, food industry, medical equipment, metal products, etc.